


Eight Ways to Say I Love You

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: F/M, I Love You
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 22:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9292904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry ;)





	

Saying the words isn’t the only way to communicate how much you love someone. Even the smallest of gestures can say so much. After 10 years with your husband, Spencer still surprised you every day with the myriad of ways he could say I love you. You always endeavored to do the same - that’s what made a relationship last.

—

When you first started dating, seriously it was after the third date, you ended up coming down with a wicked case of the flu. After he got out of work, Spencer came over with a bowl of soup from the place you loved around the corner from his job. You hadn’t asked him to come - honestly, you didn’t really want him to. One, you were sick and didn’t want to contaminate him and two, you’d only just started dating, so him seeing you so disgusting was embarrassing. But he didn’t miss a beat, ensuring that when you ran to the toilet to puke your guts up, your hair wouldn’t get dirty. For hours, he said nothing, just sat at your side on the bathroom floor holding your hair back and rubbing your back. You’d only been dating for about two and half to three weeks at the time - but that’s when you knew he was the one.

— 

Three months later, Spencer was getting called away on case after case. He was away for nearly six weeks and the night he was coming back, you knew you would have to do an overnight at the hospital. Since you couldn’t be there when he got back, and you hadn’t seen him in forever, you spent every free moment you had in the few days before his return cooking his favorite meals - six to be precise, one for every week he was gone.

After hours upon hours of cooking, you made your way over to Spencer’s apartment with the help of Penelope, who had been able to return home after the previous case. With chicken farm, stir fry, inside-out bacon cheeseburgers, chicken marsala, pork chops, meatloaf and a giant chocolate cake in hand, you filled up his refrigerator. As Penelope left the apartment, ensuring you’d also make her a chocolate cake, you sat down to write Spencer a note.

Hey babe,

I wish I could be home when you got back, but the hospital calls. Enjoy what’s inside and know how much I’ve missed you while you were gone!

Y/N  
You hadn’t yet said those three little words, but you felt them; you just happened to be a bit of a traditionalist, wanting him to say it first. Before you left, you kissed the paper with your lipstick and stuck the note on the refrigerator door.

Hours later, when Spencer finally returned home, it was nearly 3 AM and you were at your wits end at the hospital. The only thing that kept you going that night was a picture of Spencer practically sticking his face in the chocolate cake you made him - with a note at the bottom that said ‘I love you.’

—

Loving someone can mean doing something they love whether you love it or not. It can mean the biggest of things or the smallest of things.

Soon after he returned home, you went out to a Thai place that you both loved. At the end of the night, after filling yourselves up with pad thai, chicken for you and shrimp for him, you both wanted the same dessert. Khao Neow Ma Muang was a sticky rice dessert with mango and coconut milk that you’d both fallen in love with when he took you there for your first date. Problem was, there was only enough left for one person. Without thinking, you told Spencer he could have it and ordered a banana dish instead. He didn’t know, but you’d been craving that mango dessert.

Before the dessert came to the table, you excused yourself to go to the bathroom, but upon your return the desserts were there - half of your plate was the dessert you ordered and the other half was the mango one you’d let Spencer have.

“You can have half,” he insisted. “You looked like you really wanted it.”

—

Spencer loved his job, but the downside was how often it took him away from you. You loved him, and he was constantly in danger. Just before he proposed (only seven months after you met), he was called away on yet another case - this unsub was targeting law enforcement - and you were terrified.

He was keeping you updated, but it did nothing to lessen your fear. One night when you couldn’t sleep, scared you wouldn’t hear from him the next day, you called; he was still at the station. “Hey babe,” you said, your heart practically beating out of your chest. “I know your busy so I won’t keep you long, but I’m freaking out tonight, so…can you call me when you get back to the hotel? I just wanna know you’re okay.”

“Of course,” he replied, “It’s nice to know you worry.”

“Always.”

—

After his proposal, you both apparently freaked out about writing vows (Penelope would late tell you that both you and Spencer came to her in a panic about the vows). On the day, you both looked at your vows over and over again. Even as you walked down the aisle, you wondered whether or not you should change them - but that fear went away as soon as you both started speaking. You cried like a baby; not as much because of the words themselves, but because you both said many of the same things. The one big one - My world is better with you in it.

—

Your proposal, engagement and wedding went by in the blink of an eye - before you knew it, it was over and you were back to the day-to-day life with you at the hospital and him at the BAU. For nearly four months after you tied the knot, you passed by each other, him working during the day and you at night. Then finally you had the same few days off. Nearly the entire night, you sat on the couch - no television in the background, no food, no sex - just talking.

As you were on your way to the bedroom, tired after talking for nearly six hours, Spencer said something that stuck with you to this day.

“I miss this, you know? Talking to you.” To you, it just pointed out how little you actually to do to make each other happy.

—

Two years after you got married, you found out you were pregnant. Spencer had always wanted children, so when you saw the positive sign, you freaked out, running around the house and jumping up and down like a mad-woman - you figured Spencer would react much the same way.

But that night, upon his return home, you surprised him with a birthday card. It was actually his birthday - but at the end, you’d signed it Y/N and Baby Reid. As he read the words, he looked from the card to you and immediately broke down in tears, saying nothing, and just kissing your stomach.

—

Ten years and three kids later, your lives had changed a lot. Most of it for the better. There were still those times you passed by each other because your schedules were at opposite times and with three young children in the house, you didn’t get as much time together as you used to, but you made it work.

Tonight was one of the first nights that both of you would be home, so you originally figured you’d be able to spend some time together after the kids went to bed.

But Spencer had called your parents and asked them to babysit the kids for the night. “I’ve missed you. I want tonight to be about us.”

—

Even after ten years, you could still find unique ways to say I love you.


End file.
